This watchdog blog, by journalist Norman Oder, offers analysis, commentary, and reportage about the $4.9 billion project to build the Barclays Center arena and 16 high-rise buildings at a crucial site in Brooklyn. Dubbed Atlantic Yards by developer Forest City Ratner in 2003, it was rebranded Pacific Park in 2014 after the Chinese government-owned Greenland Group bought a 70% stake in 15 towers. New York State still calls it Atlantic Yards. Contact: AtlanticYardsReport[at]hotmail.com

Wednesday, February 08, 2012

There was some Atlantic Yards news yesterday at the quarterly real estate roundtable hosted by the Brooklyn Historical Society. Forest City Ratner executive Bob Sanna sees modular technology as
"our iPhone moment,” a breakthrough for the industry, the New York Post reported.

But no word yet on when and whether they'll get a plant up and running.

Meanwhile, retail rents along Flatbush Avenue across from the arena now exceed $100 per square foot, said Pintchik, who owns Pintchik Discount Hardware in Park Slope and a number of other buildings in the area.

In a sign of the intense interest in area retail, the Flatbush Avenue site of 96-year-old Triangle Sports hit the market last week. Ofer Cohen, the founder and president of real estate service firm TerraCRG, which has the listing, told The Real Deal after the event that his firm has already gotten around 150 inquiries about the building.

For his part, Pintchik said he has plans to develop two six-story, mixed-use buildings along Flatbush near the arena.

When it comes to tenants, he said his company is “not big on fast-food chains,” preferring to “keep the local flavor” instead, with retail tenants who are “artisanal,” “independent,” “quirky,” or “edgy.”